Predators also have rights
As a Colorado urban dweller for 21 years and a Colorado resident again in my future, I feel more than qualified to respond to Ellen Miller's essay, "Should city slickers dictate to trappers?" (HCN, 10/28/96). I was born and raised in the hellhole of the Midwest, Muscatine, Iowa, population 23,000, but apparently I have more of an affinity for rural Colorado than Ms. Miller.
When a rancher sets a trap for a predator, he is telling the world that this land is his. But, it isn't. The wolf, the bear, the mountain lion, the coyote were all there before him and don't know "the rules." They only know their nature and the laws they live by, which were not set forth for them by man. The rancher says he is out there to earn a living; the predator is only doing the same - what he was born to do. He doesn't know Forest Service, BLM or wilderness boundaries. Should we punish the animal for that?
If this is what it takes to be a part of the coffee crowd at the Meeker cafe, count me out.
Joyce A. Thede
Boulder City, Nevada
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